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--:-- Host: Why shop at Burlington? Maybe it's the deals that are new each time you drop by. Maybe it's the brand names you'll be shocked Burlington has in store. Or maybe it's the quality of the items, the amazing selection, and the newest trends. If you like to save, but also like to stay in style, Burlington is your answer. And the question you'll be asking yourself is, why go anywhere else? Burlington. Deals. Brands. Wow.
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--:-- Host: Trump continues his fast and furious pace of reshaping the U.S. government. The first two weeks have been probably, they say, the most successful two weeks in the history of any presidency. We look at Trump's latest political maneuvers, including tackling anti-Christian bias and overhauling the tax system. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, February 7th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host: How many federal dollars are finding their way into the pockets of media outlets? We dug into the Doge-sparked controversy. And illegal border encounters have plummeted since Trump took office. Is the administration living up to its promise to secure the border? The crossings on the border are down 93 percent. 93 percent. Wow. That's a bigger decrease than under the first Trump administration.
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--:-- Host: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host: Hey, guys. Producer Brandon here. Black Rifle Coffee helps you wake up each morning feeling dialed in and ready to make the most of your day. and now's your chance to get 20% off your purchase using code dailywire at blackriflecoffee.com. All of their explosive coffees are roasted right here in the USA by a veteran-led team of expert roasters obsessed with crafting the perfect cup of coffee. Every Black Rifle purchase gives back to those who serve our nation. Your support makes it possible for Black Rifle Coffee Company to help provide funding, training, and equipment to our nation's military and first responders. Head over to their site now for 20% off your purchase with code dailywire.
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--:-- Host: President Trump continues to sign executive orders at a record pace, reshaping the federal government. Joining us now is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips, who has the latest on another whirlwind day in Washington. Hey, Cabot. So Trump has really stunned supporters and critics with the pace of his executive orders. So let's start there. What are we seeing so far from him on executive action?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, he's at a risk of burning a hole in the Resolute desk with how fast he's signing these new orders. Trump officials told me throughout the transition phase that they had the orders ready to go and would hit the ground running, and they were not lying. Since January 20th, Donald Trump has signed executive orders at a faster pace than any president in modern American history. For context, in the last century, only two presidents, Joe Biden and Harry Truman, had signed more than 40 orders during their first 100 days. Trump hit that number in his first two weeks. Wow, but it's not a competition. Just going to clarify.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah. And many of those orders are turning out to be really popular with Americans, right?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yes, they are. For example, Ipsos polling this week found that 64% of Americans support his plan to investigate FEMA for political bias. 62% favor his order overriding California law to bring in more water to the state. 73% support his declassifying of the RFK, JFK, and MLK records. And 59% support reinstating service members discharged for refusing the COVID vaccine. But most popular has been his order to ban biological men from women's sports, which he signed Wednesday. According to a New York Times poll, 79% of Americans support that plan, including even 67% of Democrats. And on Thursday, Trump announced his newest order, this one on religious freedom. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast he said he be assigning the Department of Justice to form a task force to quote eradicate anti bias around the country specifically targeting any discrimination of Christians by the federal government
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti targeting and discrimination within the federal government. The task force will work to fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide. Newly confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi will be tasked with overseeing that force, and she's also rolling out a number of DOJ reforms in her first week. In a memo to staffers, Bondi threatened to fire anyone who, quote, undermines the constitutional order and deprives the president of the benefit of his lawyers, aka anyone subverting orders from the White House. The AG will also be establishing a new weaponization working group that'll investigate cases of politicized justice within the DOJ over the last four years. That group will reportedly prioritize investigations of those who prosecuted Donald Trump, including Special Counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, and New York AG Letitia James. From there, they'll be looking into the January 6th trials, the DOJ's targeting of parents protesting school board meetings, and those within the FBI who targeted Catholic churches and charities. So they want answers from the last four years.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Trump has long said the DOJ engaged in lawfare against political opponents. And now the head of the DOJ will be searching for that evidence. Lots of interest in what they find there. Now, the White House also laid out new plans for overhauling the tax system on Thursday. What are they proposing?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, so that'll take more than an executive order, as tax policy requires an act of Congress. So on Thursday, the White House sat down with House GOP leaders to lay out the reforms they want passed into law. Among those are the elimination of taxes on Social Security benefits and overtime pay, and the big one, an end to taxes on tips. That idea gained a lot of steam on the campaign trail, really becoming a rallying cry for supporters. The White House is also pushing for the renewal of Trump's 2017 tax cuts, the elimination of the carried interest loophole, and new tax breaks for Made in America products. Here's Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt. This will be the largest tax cut in history for middle-class working Americans. the president is committed to working with Congress to get this done.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, House Republicans expressed support for most of those policies during the campaign, but passing them into law will be a challenge, especially given their slim majority and the unlikelihood of any Democratic support. GOP lawmakers don't get on board, though. We can certainly expect to see the president using his bully pulpit to exert some pressure. Yeah, he's not shy about using that. That's for sure.
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--:-- Host: President Trump is ordering the government services agency to cancel all media contracts. That's according to Axios. Controversy erupted this week over allegations that the federal government has been funding legacy media outlets like Politico, the Associated Press and the New York Times. But the outlets say the spending is legitimate. Here with the details is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. So Megan a lot of opposing claims over this issue First off how much federal money are we talking about and which media outlets are receiving it
--:-- Megan Basham: So as we reported yesterday this really started with the Trump administration announcement that it was effectively shutting down USAID. And that's the United States Agency for International Development. Now that led to a lot of scrutiny over what exactly USAID has been spending money on. And that's when data analysts found millions of taxpayer dollars from various federal agencies flowing into legacy outlets like Politico and AP. Now, Politico has been the main focus because they received $8.2 million from the federal government in just the last fiscal year. Some initial reports falsely claimed that all of that money was coming from USAID. But in reality, only 24,000 came from that group. But what that did was the discovery got a lot more people looking into these payments and millions more was discovered coming from other government agencies. So now we're seeing a similar debate around the AP, the New York Times, and Reuters. AP has received $620,000, primarily coming from the State Department. The Times was paid $378,000 last fiscal year for its various subscriptions. And Reuters received $13.6 million, with the majority coming from the Department of Defense for a premium data analysis product called Thomas Reuters Special Services.
--:-- Megan Basham: And how are these outlets explaining those payments? Well, they argue that these are legitimate business transactions, not subsidies. Politico's argument is that these agencies were buying subscriptions to its premium news service, Politico Pro, and some annual subscriptions could cost over $10,000. So Politico CEO and editor-in-chief issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the company has, quoting here, never received any government funding, no subsidies, no grants, not one dime in 18 years. And they also underscored that Politico Pro is a different product than their general news program. And they say that most of their subscribers are in the private sector. Now, AP also doesn't deny that they've received millions in payments, but they made a point of noting that both Republican and Democratic administrations have been their customers. But a lot of critics, particularly those on the right, counter that these premium subscriptions, like Politico Pro, are pretty exorbitantly priced, over 10K a year, and that this is effectively a racket that relies on government agencies greenlighting these high expenditures. And they also worry about how these large sums of money might influence news coverage. Molly Hemingway at The Federalist shared a post that called it payola, quoting, like when a labor union buys 250K copies of a hack politician's book no one wants to read. Sure, they technically paid for a book, but the union was purchasing something else. And then political talk show host Eric Erickson argued that if any Republican were using federal tax dollars to pay for subscriptions to a conservative news service that costs $10,000, the very press outlets defending this would assail that.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, is there evidence that this cash flow has skewed their coverage? Well, we can see that these pricey Politico accounts did ramp up during the Biden years. They went from $6.5 million during the Trump administration to $26 million between 2021 and 2024 under President Biden. And that does present some problematic optics, if nothing else. And then a former Politico reporter, Mark Caputo, has acknowledged that the outlet's editors tended to quash those stories that were unfavorable to Biden. He said they wouldn't run coverage on Joe Biden cognitive decline or on the Hunter Biden laptop story In fact he said that staff were instructed to not even talk or tweet about that laptop story So there no proof that that editorial bias was influenced by money. But again, the optics aren't great. Well, at the very least, it's worth knowing which outlets have lucrative government contracts.
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--:-- Host: Pam Bondi, just recently confirmed as attorney general, has wasted no time in cracking down on sanctuary cities, but some local leaders have pushed back. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce joins us to talk about the latest on immigration and deportation, say Tim. So Attorney General Bondi already taking action here. Where is she focusing her attention right now?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, Chicago is the first city to be hit with a lawsuit over its rules designed to protect illegal aliens from federal immigration officers. Here's Bondi on Fox News with Sean Hannity last night. Not only did we sue today the city of Chicago, we sued the state of Illinois, we sued the mayor, we sued the governor, and we sued others. And let me be very clear, if you don't comply with federal law, you're going to be next. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Thursday. As far as the state is concerned, state law forbids local law enforcement from holding someone over an ICE detainer. A city ordinance adds to that. Officials are barred from helping ICE officials arrest illegal aliens. Of course, many more places than Chicago have these types of rules or guidance. This is only the start of the Trump administration's crackdown. Right. Now, local officials say that the federal government does not have the authority to force their hands on deportations. Who is in the right here? Well, it's a good question, and it's going to be litigated. One of the tools that the Trump administration has used to pressure sanctuary cities is to cut them off from federal funds. Opponents say that's an overreach of executive authority. Legally, it's an open question. The first Trump administration also used this leverage, and it spawned numerous lawsuits and court rulings. But when President Joe Biden took over, his administration dropped the policy before it was brought before the Supreme Court. The other lever that the White House is using to get its way is through direct legal action like the lawsuit against Chicago. The lawsuit alleges essentially that the city is aiding and abetting criminals. White House boarder czar Tom Homan appeared on Fox News Thursday and was militant that local officials should get out of ICE's way. For any mayor or governor who doesn't want public safety threats removed from the communities, I find it hard to believe that. But we're going to do it, with or without them. If they're not going to help, get out of the way. But don't cross that line. Do not impede our operations. But whether or not local officials are on board, deportations are happening, as we've reported. ICE even started using space at Guantanamo Bay to hold some deportees. Now, there were some kinks in the operation early on, some leaks that got out. Have those been ironed out? Maybe. ICE did have another instance where its plans for a raid against suspected Trendy Aragua members were leaked. Homan was pretty furious about it, and he wants Bondi and the DOJ involved here, too. This is not a game. When we show up at these sites, this is a dangerous job for the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol and all the DOJ agencies. to have that type of interference puts our officers at great risk. Not only the officers, it puts the aliens at great risk because anything can happen when we take our eyes off the goal here. So we're addressing that immediately today. So operational security has been a problem for ICE. Homan is working on it. He said Thursday he'll probably stop ride-alongs for the media to control more variables. But deportations have moved forward. They're at about 12,000 now since Trump entered office less than three weeks ago. The number keeps ticking up every week.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for joining us. Good to be on.
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--:-- Host: Thanks for waking up with us. And if you enjoyed listening today, please share this episode with a friend.
